Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Sem Fabrizi took part in the Annual Conference of judges of Serbia in Vrnjacka Banja. Serbian Minister of Justice Nela Kuburovic opened the meeting and said that constitutional reform is one of crucial reforms ahead of Serbia because the goal of said reform was to establish and strengthen independence of judiciary in line with European standards, reads the statement released by the Government.
She said that the Ministry of Justice would soon launch a public call for 160 judicial interns who are expected to start working by the end of 2017. She added that, with a view to speed up and improve the quality of judicial proceedings, the Ministry of Justice kicked off a project titled “Electronic data exchange between judicial and other authorities.”
EU Ambassador Sem Fabrizi stressed the importance of independent, efficient and quality delivery of justice in the process of EU accession and added that “the EU is supporting Serbia’s efforts in judiciary.”
He described the concrete manner in which the EU delivers its assistance through IPA funds: “refurbishment of court buildings, prisons, provision equipment for more efficient case handling and technical assistance to substantially reduce the case backlog.”
Ambassador Fabrizi also mentioned the EU-funded project Judicial Efficiency thanks to which the number of enforcement cases was down by over 800,000.
He reminded that the EU and its Member States were Serbia’s first economic partners. “The EU institutions’ financial assistance for Serbia amounts to ca. EUR200 million annually. A considerable amount is dedicated to justice sector – over EUR30 million over next two years,” Fabrizi said and added that EU’s commitment to Serbia was “firm and clear.”
EU Ambassador Sem Fabrizi’s full speech can be found here
